


Roland

by leiascully



Series: The FBI's Most Unwanted [25]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Afterlife, Cryogenics, Episode Tag, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 06:39:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4337813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You're not going vicariously monster hunt from beyond the grave using my body."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Roland

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: 1.22 "Roland"  
> Disclaimer: _The X-Files_ and all related characters are the property of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and Fox Studios. No profit is made from this work and no infringement is intended.

"Did you ever want a twin, Scully?" Mulder asked, lounging in a plastic chair at the airport.

"Not particularly," she told him. "I wanted a room of my own a lot more."

"Oh, hey did you call your brother?" He picked peanuts out of a bag of trail mix. 

"Left a message," she said. "Charlie's never home anyway. What about you, Mulder? Did you want a twin?"

"Would have been easier to play catch," he said. "At least when Samantha was too little. We never were the right height to play one-on-one basketball."

She held out her hand and he shook some trail mix into it, heavy now on raisins and chocolate chips. "Where's this leading, Mulder? Twinspeak? Twins raised apart who lead similar lives? There are some studies to support that twins have a special bond, but no research yet on whether that bond exists beyond the moment of death."

"Maybe you've got a secret twin. Maybe alternative Scully stayed in med school," he said. "Or maybe she's climbing a mountain somewhere. Running her own private army. Leading a retreat for people interested in expanding the limits of their consciousness."

"My hypothetical twin leads a fulfilling life," she quipped. "I wonder if it's too late for a Parent Trap situation."

He laughed softly. "You don't find this life fulfilling?"

"Not when somebody keeps eating all the peanuts," she teased. "I hope alternative Mulder has better manners."

"Alternative Mulder always minds his Ps and Qs," he said solemnly. 

"I hate to say it, Mulder, but if that's true, you're probably not related," she said. He smirked at her and pressed two raisins around a chocolate chip and popped it into his mouth. 

"Before you ask, I don't want to be frozen when I die, either," she told him.

"Come on, Scully, you're going to live forever," he said. "But noted. No Walt Disney special." He scuffed his shoe over the carpet. "Any particular reason?"

"Things end," she said. "A life that never ended wouldn't have the same meaning. We're given a limited amount of time on this planet to accomplish whatever it is we're going to accomplish. Without boundaries, without endpoints, where's the urgency to complete these tasks? If you had all the time in the world, Mulder, would your search for your proof still be as important to you?"

"A philosopher for our time," he said warmly. "Deep thoughts, Scully."

"Somehow in the morgue there's always plenty of time to think these things through," she said. 

"Touché," he said. 

"I imagine you feel differently." She held out her hand for more trail mix and put each piece into her mouth one at a time.

He leaned forward and balanced his elbows on his knees. "I think it would be an adventure. Imagine waking up in a new age, when we've conquered death. Imagine what kind of life we might make. Maybe I'd find my answers. Maybe I wouldn't need them at all."

"As long as you don't will me your frozen corpse," she said in a wry voice. 

"Are you trying to say I don't fit with your decor?" he joked. "I don't need to be in your living room, Scully. We might not be twins, but I think we've got a pretty strong connection, and we've been crammed together in an enclosed space for a lot longer than nine months."

"You're not going vicariously monster hunt from beyond the grave using my body," she said. 

"I like to think of us as a team," he teased. "Surely we can work out some kind of arrangement. Alternate weekends, that kind of a thing."

"Mulder," she said, stifling a laugh.

"Sharing is caring, Scully," he said. 

"Be that as it may," she said, "I prefer to retain sole custody of my own body for now, thank you." She paused a moment, looking at her hands. "I hope Roland's all right."

"Me too," he said. "It can't have been easy for him. I wonder how much he understood of what was going on."

"Working with you, I've begun to wonder how much any of us understand what's going on," she said, tucking her hair behind her ear.

He smiled. "That's either the best or the worst compliment I've gotten." 

"You're still not getting a timeshare in my brain," she told him. 

"Hopefully I've still got time to change your mind," he said, standing up. "You ready?"

She picked up her bag. "Boarding on time for once."

"Now that's an X-File," he said.


End file.
